Hi all,
You may remember me posting recently about a mum who was told by her
paediatrician that her baby had to be weaned onto soy formula because he
was intolerant to many of the oligosaccharides in her breastmilk, and that
this occurs (mostly in milder forms) in 1 in 20 babies.

I was directed to Patricia McVeagh (thanks, Lisa), who has a special
interest in human milk oligosaccharides and she has given me permission to
share her response with you all. I thought you might be interested.

She writes:
>I'm curious too
>Our work has shown that oligosaccharides are not digested in the small
>intestine but are delivered to the large intestine where they are fermented.
>Hence it is not normal to have enzymes to HMO, hence technically you can't
>be intolerant to them in the lactose sense as it is normal not to digest
>them. Also you can't be intolerant in the allergy sense as they are
>carbohydrate not protein.
>Doubtlessly their fermentation in the large colon and effect on intestinal
>bacteria contribute to the character of breast fed babies stools and the
>frothy explosive quality of some. However, again, this would be regarded as
>being in the normal range.
>Interesting to know that knowledge of HMO has reached the level that
>misinfomation is being used in patient management - when we started research
>in HMO, no-one had heard of them - maybe its a sign we have made centre
>stage and will be next in the "wind" - "lactose" - "reflux" story.


******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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